Cleaning House

Our maid started Monday and much hilarity has ensued since she first arrived.  Apparently, when the maid said she could understand "some" English...that meant 5 words of English....interesting.  Monday we went to the store to buy groceries, just me and the maid.  When we arrived I realized that I had no idea what ingredients are needed to cook Indian food.  So, we just stared at each other for a little while until a kindly security guard offered to translate.  He told her that she could just get whatever ingredients she needed to cook meals for the week.  This also posed a problem as she wasn't entirely sure what we American's ate. :-)  She spent a couple minutes roaming the aisles pointing at various foodstuffs and asking, "yes?", until the guard caught up to us and explained to her that we Americans wanted to eat Indian food (a shocking revelation)!  Then we were off to buy all of the lovely ingredients to make a nice curry.  All in all it is quite nice coming home to a clean house with dinner in the fridge...but communication is a bit of a problem.  Generally,  she understands the exact opposite of what I am trying to tell her.  Thank goodness for my Indian colleagues and friends who offer to translate when I pass the phone!